Foreign Films - Page 14

Manufacturer: Criterion Brand: Image Entertainment

Brother and sister Enrique and Rosa flee persecution at home in Guatemala and journey north, through Mexico and on to the United States, with the dream of starting a new life. It s a story that happens every day, but until Gregory Nava's groundbreaking El Norte (The North), the personal travails of immigrants crossing the border to America had never been shown in the movies with such urgent humanism. A work of social realism imbued with dreamlike imagery, El Norte is a lovingly rendered, heartbreaking story of hope and survival, which critic Roger Ebert called a Grapes of Wrath for our time. DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES: New, restored high-definition digital transfer supervised and approved by director Gregory Nava New audio commentary featuring Nava In the Service of the Shadows: The Making of El Norte: a new video program featuring interviews with Nava, producer and cowriter Anna Thomas, actors Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez and David Villalpando, and set designer David Wasco Wall of Silence, a new short documentary by Nava and Barbara Martinez Jitner, concerning the building of the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border The Journal of Diego Rodriguez Silva, the 1972 award-winning student film by Nava Gallery of Chipas location-scouting photographs Theatrical trailer New and improved English subtitle translation PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by novelist Héctor Tobar and Roger Ebert's 1983 review of the film The audience for El Norte splits into two factions. There are those who, ever since its 1983 Telluride Film Festival unveiling, have spoken reverently of it as a great film, "a Grapes of Wrath for our time." And then there are those who find it a decent movie deserving of respect as passionate social protest, but seriously compromised by a Filmmaking 101 approach. Hailed as "the first epic" of the independent American cinema, the film focuses on two young Mayan Indians--sister Rosa (Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez) and brother Enrique (David Villalpando)--whose lives are shattered by the Guatemalan ci...

Manufacturer: Criterion Collection Model: 35490781

Manufacturer: Walt Disney Home Entertainment Presents A Studio G Brand: BUENA VISTA HOME VIDEO Model: 31566586

Studio Ghibli presents a film about the clash between modern civilization and the natural world from acclaimed director Isao Takahata. The raccoons of the Tama Hills are being forced from their homes by the rapid development of houses and shopping malls. As it becomes harder to find food and shelter, they decide to band together and fight back. The raccoons practice and perfect the ancient art of transformation until they are even able to appear as humans. In often hilarious ways, the raccoons use their powers to try to scare off the advance of civilization. But will it be enough? Or will the raccoons learn how to live in balance with the modern world? Celebrate the magic of the forest and the beauty of the creatures who live among us in POM POKO -- now on Disney Blu-ray for the first time ever.

Manufacturer: Strand Releasing Model: 22980854

Based on the best selling book by medium Chico Xavier, the film tells the story of Andre Luiz, a successful doctor who experiences an enlightening spiritual awakening after his death. When he wakes up in the spiritual world, he embarks on a new journey of self-discovery and transformation, from his first days in a dimension of pain and suffering, until when he is rescued and taken to the spiritual Astral City. With magnificent art direction and special effects that have never been seen before in a Brazilian production, and featuring an amazing score by composer Philip Glass, the film brings to the screen what life is like at the Astral City that hovers in the upper layers of the Earth's atmosphere. In Portuguese with English Subtitles

Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)

One of the most popular foreign films of all time, playing continuously in some theatres for over five years, King of Hearts is a "bright, lilting, whimsical, lyrical" (Cue) comedy thatcleverly satirizes the absurdity of war with a "message [that is] meaningful and entertaining" (Boxoffice). Bumbling Scottish Private Plumpick (Alan Bates) is sent to a village in the beautiful French countryside during World War I on a suicide mission to detonate explosives set bythe retreating German army. The village, soon to be blown sky-high, has been abandoned by its inhabitantsand replaced with escapees from the local insane asylum. Now, with the mentally challenged running the town, Plumpick is crowned King! But his new title brings him his first horrible decision: to carry out his deadly mission or join the ranks of the blissfully ignorant who know nothing about war. King of Hearts is subtle, visually striking and, in short, the "ultimate display of madness" (Life)!

Manufacturer: Criterion Collection Color: color

This boldly cinematic trio of stories about love and loss from Krzysztof Kieślowski (The Double Life of Véronique) was a defining event of the art-house boom of the 1990s. The films were named for the colors of the French flag and stand for the tenets of the French Revolution—liberty, equality, and fraternity—but this hardly begins to explain their enigmatic beauty and rich humanity. Set in Paris, Warsaw, and Geneva, and ranging from tragedy to comedy, Blue, White, and Red (Kieślowski’s final film) examine with artistic clarity a group of ambiguously interconnected people experiencing profound personal disruptions. Marked by intoxicating cinematography and stirring performances by such actors as Juliette Binoche (Summer Hours), Julie Delpy (Before Sunset), Irène Jacob (The Double Life of Véronique), and Jean-Louis Trintignant (Z), Kieślowski’s Three Colors is a benchmark of contemporary cinema. Blue In the devastating first film of the Three Colors trilogy, Juliette Binoche gives a tour de force performance as Julie, a woman reeling from the tragic deaths of her husband and young daughter. But Blue is more than just a blistering study of grief; it’s also a tale of liberation, as Julie learns truths about her late composer husband’s life and attempts to free herself of the past. Shot in icily gorgeous tones by Sławomir Idziak (The Double Life of Véronique) and set to an extraordinary operatic score by Zbigniew Preisner (The Secret Garden), Blue is an overwhelming sensory experience. 1993 98 minutes Color 2.0 surround In French with English subtitles 1.85:1 aspect ratio White The most playful but also the grittiest of Kieślowski’s Three Colors films follows the adventures of Karol Karol (The Pianist’s Zbigniew Zamachowski), a Polish immigrant living in France. The hapless hairdresser opts to leave Paris for his native Warsaw after his wife (Julie Delpy) sues him for divorce (her reason: he was never able to perform in bed) ...

Manufacturer: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Brand: CRITERION COLLECTIONS Model: 5523378 Color: color

Just as many American studio-era directors found acclaim abroad that was denied them in their home country, by 1980 Akira Kurosawa's reputation outside Japan exceeded his esteem at home. As uncompromising as ever, he found considerable difficulty securing backing for his ambitious projects. Unsure he would be able to film it, the director, an aspiring artist before he entered filmmaking, converted Kagemusha into a series of paintings, and it was partly on the basis of these that he won the financial support of longtime admirers Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas. Set in the 16th century, when powerful warlords competed for control of Japan, it offers an examination of the nature of political power and the slipperiness of identity. For some time, Shingen Takeda Tatsuya Nakadai has been able to stay removed from the heat of battle by using his brother Nobukado Tsutomu Yamazaki as a double. As the film opens, Nobukado offers another option, having discovered a condemned thief (also pla

Manufacturer: Criterion Collection Brand: Image Entertainment Model: 25524833

Poetic realism reached sublime heights with Children of Paradise (Les enfants du paradis), widely considered one of the greatest French films of all time. This nimble depiction of nineteenth-century Paris’s theatrical demimonde, filmed during World War II, follows a mysterious woman (The Pearls of the Crown’s Arletty) loved by four different men (all based on historical figures): an actor, a criminal, a count, and, most poignantly, a street mime (La ronde’s Jean-Louis Barrault, in a longing-suffused performance for the ages). With sensitivity and dramatic élan, director Marcel Carné (Port of Shadows) and screenwriter Jacques Prévert (Le jour se lève) resurrect a world teeming with hucksters and aristocrats, thieves and courtesans, pimps and seers. Thanks to a major new restoration, this iconic classic looks and sounds richer and more detailed than ever.

Manufacturer: MHz Networks Brand: MHZ NETWORKS Model: 33943789

IN DANISH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES Cited by Stephen King as his favorite television series of the year, Denmark s blockbuster political drama, Borgen ( The Castle ) explores the insular world of high-stakes Danish politics and the press corps that covers it in instantaneous, relentless news cycles. Birgitte Nyborg becomes Prime Minister of Denmark through a political fluke and has to learn the ways of power, quickly. She s an altruistic public servant in an old boys club and must master the art of the deal overnight, manage her image and understand that she has advisors but no real friends. She also must perform the impossible juggling act of maintaining a family life while serving as Denmark s first female Prime Minister. The rigors of public life and the press may attract some of Denmark s finest, but it also exacts a high price from them all for participating in an open democracy.